Post fringe week

Back to the real world this week - some work, but the much improved weather meant a lot of golf too. Coming up to the end of the season is a fairly busy time, with lots of events on, but it's always sad when the midweek golf after work ends - and, on Wednesday, it was the last night of our 22 week season long Summer Quaich competition. By next week, there's not enough daylight left to get a full round in after 5:00 pm.

Anyway, my week started well when I won my semi-final of the Learney Cup at Torphins on Monday evening. Don't think Jo was so pleased however - it means there's still a chance that we'll have this trophy hanging around the house for another year!

On Thursday, I had a business golf game at Kemnay with one of our bankers. It was a beautiful evening and the course was great - and I shot a gross 76 - pretty good! I surpassed that with a gross 73 at Aboyne yesterday (Friday) in the Terry Edmonds Memorial Trophy - another b....y trophy, says Jo! Poor Terry died of cancer at Christmas time 2001 and his widow, Linda, donated a beautiful cup which we now play for annually. It was another fantastic day and we did the prizeging on the decking at Aboyne:


Too many beers (and a dram) last night - there was a band in the Burnett and we also went to the Douglas - so the golf at Torphins this morning wasn't very good, although again it was nice and warm.

This is our Boat of Garten weekend and we head off to play Kingussie tomorrow (Sunday) and B.o.G. on Monday, so I hope the weather holds - although the forecast is a little mixed.

Barry and Helen are now clearing out Dad's flat - Helen's Mum and Dad will move in there - it's safer for them as it's on the ground floor. Barry says Dad seems settled OK at Erskine - must get down to see him again soon.

Jo's on a mission clearing out the house of much of her old teaching files etc. It's a bit chaotic just now - boxes etc everywhere - but it's all for the longer term good.

Jo's also been shopping for her outfit for Gillian Kilgour's wedding in 2 weeks - she's almost there - just shoes now, I think.

Next Friday, we're staying at St Andrews Bay - Keith and Annette Gray are also coming down - Keith and I are golfing in the afternoon and we'll all probably go back to the Balaka in the evening for a meal.

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

As expected, my golf got rained off again on Thursday, but at least we managed to get a game of squash doubles. We were sitting in the clubhouse having a beer afterwards and Richard casually mentioned that his visitors this weekend had been delayed because of a landslide on the rail line south of Stonehaven - uh oh - we had only just booked our return journey down to Edinburgh. Sure enough, it was still blocked in the morning so bang went my relaxing trip down to the Fringe - we had to drive after all - and hope that First Scotrail respond to my request for a refund.

Anyway, we made it in good time - after lunch at the Horn of course - and Colin and Johanne arrived not long after us. It was going to be a busy Friday evening but we thought we'd have time for a quick beer in the Cafe Royal before heading off to the Assembly Rooms to see Clive James in conversation.

We weren't quite sure what to expect from the first show - there were 2 chairs on stage and Clive James walked on and said that a surprise guest had just flown in (to publicise his new book) - it was Rick Wakeman. I never cared much for his music - in Yes and solo - and used to think he was a fairly pretentious prat until I saw him in Grumpy Old Men. Well, he could talk - entertainingly - for England - one question and he was off! Very enjoyable, although I could hear a few mutters at the end about wanting to hear more from Clive James himself.

We didn't have much time to get to the next show and it was too far to walk it in time, but we were fortunate enough to pick up a cab which got us to Bristo Square in good time for the News Revue. Last year, it had been very funny, satirical and fast paced, but this year's show passed the latter 2 criteria but failed miserably to amuse us much.

Another taxi took us down to Jeffrey St in time for some supper before our next show. The first restaurant we saw was a Spanish Tapas bar, so we didn't hesitate - it's hard to get in anywhere at Festival time. The meal was excellent and it was just a short stagger from there down the hill to Jury's Inn for A Tribute to Bessie Smith. It was a typical Fringe Venue - one room in the hotel, with about 40 chairs and a small space for a keyboard and double bass player, plus the singer - a little old lady called Liz Dicks. She was far from a Bessie Smith sound-a-like - and definitely not a look-alike! If you don't know who Bessie Smith was, she was a giant of a woman - check out this movie clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQ7S2w6v2No and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bessie_Smith for information about her.

Liz Dicks was small, Scottish, frail and probably approaching 70, but she gave a rather charming rendition of some of Bessie's better known stuff, and it was a delight to watch her musicians up close and personal. I've tried to Google Liz Dicks, thinking she might be somebody with a musical past that I was unaware of, but have failed to come up with anything other than a brief reference to somebody going by that name compereing some Jazz shows in Scotland. Jo and Colin reckoned she was just a wee old wifie who had been encouraged by family and friends, in the true spirit of the Fringe, to get up and have a go!

After that, it was back over to George St to see the legend that is Geno Washington. You may not know of him, other than through Dexy's Midnight Runners number one from the '80's - "Geno" - but check out his web site - http://www.genowashington.com/ and Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geno_Washington for some background info. I first saw Geno in 1966, I think it was, when I was but a callow youth of 17. It was the Maryland Club in Glasgow, which had a bit of a reputation for trouble - in those days, the Glasgow gangs - Fleet, Tongs etc - were running amok - so it was with some trepidation that I set foot in the club. The atmosphere was intense and the joint was jumping - I'd never experienced anything like it in my life.

Geno never had hit singles but his live albums sold well. His act - and that of Jimmy James and the Vagabonds, who covered similar territory - was based purely on American soul. The Stax label had become hugely popular on the UK club scene through Sam & Dave, Otis Redding etc and, at that stage, the original acts hadn't toured here, but we were thrilled to listen to American voices covering their music.

Geno played the Lemon Tree in Aberdeen several years ago and Jo and I went along and danced the night away - he was great. In short, when I saw he was appearing at the Fringe, I had to go and see him again. We arrived at the Jamm Club and who should be stepping out of the taxi but the man himself. I took some photos outside and one of him on stage with his famous Ram Jam Band:

Jo and I danced to the band, but, in truth, the accoustics were so poor that Geno's voice was lost in a strangled, high pitched wail, drifting up to the high ceiling. I do remember he started the band on every song with the words "Kick It!".

Breakfast at McRae's Organic B & B was very good - although only Colin managed the full Scottish. It was dry and sunny when we stepped out and opposite our B & B was a house with a strange name on it:

Don't know what that's all about! Anyway, a kind neighbour, out for a quick fag - sorry, Scott - make that cigarette! - took a photo of the 4 of us outside our B & B, just before we headed off to Foodies at the Festival at the Sheraton:

The event was excellent - lots of free food and drink, plus shows, demonstrations etc. We managed to get tickets to see Hardeep Singh Kohli, comedian, writer, TV star and occasional part-time chef (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardeep_Singh_Kohli). He was hilarious - but he seriously burnt his hand as he tried to move a hot pan. Watch the One Show to see if he's still got the bandage on!

Dave Williamson, having retired from BP, now has a new job with BG, based in Reading, but with the project in Brazil. He flew in to Edinburgh direct from Rio (via Heathrow) and was texting me suggesting we meet up for a beer - so we went to an old haunt - Kay's bar:

Suitably refreshed, it was off to the Scottish Storytelling Centre to see an abridged version of Kidnapped. Here's Jo and Johanne afterwards, just outside John Knox's house:

Dinner was at Shamoli Thai and Indian restaurant overlooking the High St and then we headed off to the Old Town Literary Pub Crawl. We had all enjoyed the Rebus walking tour we went on last year and hoped that this might be similar. Unfortunately, it wasn't - and it was all down to the presenter - last year, we had an actor, who read out passages from Ian Rankin's books, but this guy was, frankly, lazy. First stop was exactly the same pub we had started at last year - it's couthy and there are strolling musicians there, but was that any reason to just dump us there without a word for the first 45 minutes of his two and a half hour tour? He did the same at 2 other pubs on the tour.

At the end of the tour, we felt a bit short changed - but we still bought his CD to see if we could learn any more from it than we had from him - unfortunately, we didn't - the CD contained even less than he'd told us - and his speeches were the same as - no - worse, verbatim - he'd said.

Anyway, he did spark a debate/quiz amongst us - how many Walter Scott and Robert Louis Stevenson novels can you name (without checking Wikipedia)? The answer was very few from our group - a pretty poor show really.

Edinburgh was alive, not just with Fringers, but also Hen parties and Stag nights. We saw these Superheroes outside Greyfriars Bobby's:

The long walk back was broken with a quick p... stop at the Guildford Arms - but we didn't have a drink there. Instead we went in to the Cask and Barrel in Broughton St, near our B & B for our bedtime drink. They had some excellent ales on and they also had high seated booths, with headrests and footrests for our weary legs:


Sunday was slower - Jo bypassed mass in Edinburgh in favour of a mid-afternoon return home in time to get to her local church by 6 pm. We went back to Foodies at the Festival to listen to the Real Ale Masterclass, given by Stewart Brewing - no really, that's their name! After that, we saw the wonderful Soweto Gospel Choir and their highly energetic and entertaining show.

We then wandered along George St and took in a bit of the Book Festival, set in Charlotte Square. As we walked down, I spied a glimpse of Edinburgh Castle and, as Iwas wearing my Kaleidoscope t-shirt, I thought this might be an appropriate photo to send to Medford - what do you think?:

End of marathon blog!

Whaleys

Julie sent me some nice photos today - I liked this one:

Bad luck for Ross

When we got home from Edinburgh last night, I noticed that Ross had been cleaning his new car, so I thought I'd take a photo of it:

However, when I got home this evening, the BMW was gone from our driveway but the above Saab was still parked in DISC - I found out why when Jo came in - he'd crashed it on his way back from Stonehaven at lunchtime! What a shame - apparently it's a write-off now.

More gloomy weather

The horrendous weather from the Central Belt was forecast to move in to the North East this morning. In Fraserburgh, it's been a fine morning and I started to get a bit hopeful, but I can see the front approaching as I write this at lunchtime, so it looks as if golf is off again tonight.

Anyway, we've got a brief meeting concerning squash at 4:30, then we're off to play doubles at Crathes - better than nothing!

Nothing much else to report - although we got a bit of a surprise from Ross last night. Just when we thought we were finally getting close to getting rid of at least one car, we've suddenly got another! Apparently, his BMW needs some work done so he had to get yet another Saab to get him to and from work! The old wrecked convertible is apparently moving tonight - although I'm not holding my breath!

Wet August!

Heavy overnight rain has again closed our golf course, so it's looking a bit dodgy for tomorrow night. Forecast is to get better - hopefully Edinburgh will be OK this weekend - and next week too - I've got a ton of golf coming on again! I've got the weekend off of course, but then I have a tie to play at Torphins on Monday and on Wednesday, it's the last night of our Summer Quaich competition - after that, it's already too dark to get a full round in after work - the long slippery slide in to winter starts here! Next weekend, we've got the Terry Edmonds Memorial Trophy at Aboyne on the Friday - it'll be 7 years this coming Christmas since he died - then it's our Boat of Garten weekend.

Without wishing to bore you all further with more golf tales, an amusing item arrived through the post yesterday:

At first, I was inclined to dismiss it as I thought it was just another scam asking for money under false pretences. However, I had second thoughts and donned my reading glasses - I didn't recognise the vehicle nor its registration - and why did it come from Worcester? Being in 2 languages also threw me for a bit and then I twigged it - the date of the offence was 28th February when we were in South Africa!

No idea who was driving that day - it could have been any one of Malcolm, Harry, Syd or I. The fine is a whopping 100 rands - about £7! I thought I had better try and pay it as I want to go back there some time - possibly next year. The problem is how? I tried to register for their Easy Pay system on the internet, but it doesn't accept foreign credit cards!

Luca was as good as gold last night - he went down without a whimper and, apart from a slight stirring early this morning, he slept through the night and was just coming round as I headed off to work this morning. Gary enjoyed the Dark Knight and reckons Heath Ledger is a shoe-in for the Oscar.

Tired Monday

Having seen Kelly and Craig off early in the morning, we were glad to be having a quiet evening. I didn't arrange my usual Monday squash and we just vegetated. Other than speaking to Kelly on the phone - they got home by 5:00 pm - time enough for a "cheeky wee surf" - and booking the train down to Edinburgh on Friday, we didn't do anything other than a bit of Corrie watching.

I'm getting near the end of my Geoff Emerick book and my next audiobook will be Steve Martin's - I cut a few CD's of this for Kelly and Craig to listen to on their journey south yesterday - she said it sounded pretty cool.

Tonight we have Luca staying over. Gary and Carole are going to see the Dark Knight and Carole has some things to do tomorrow so Jo had arranged to babysit then anyway. Other than that and golf on Thursday evening (weather permitting - the course is closed again today!), there's nothing much until our hectic weekend at the Fringe coming up. Here's our schedule:

Friday 22 Aug
16:30 – Clive James in Conversation
18:00 – News Revue
20:35 – Bessie Smith – A Tribute to the Empress of the Blues
23:00 – Geno Washington & the Ram Jam Band

Saturday 23 Aug
10:00 – Foodies at the Festival with top Scottish Chefs
17:00 – Kidnapped: When Kilts were banned
19:30 – Old Town Literary Pub Crawl

Sunday 24 Aug
12:00 – Soweto Gospel Choir in Concert

and Gary - no, I can't think who is the biggest band of the noughties - but then again, I'm probably the wrong person to ask. Kelly and I happen to like the Raconteurs, but they're still a bit of a side project for JW. Like her or not, however, I'm afraid Amy Winehouse is probably one of the biggest acts (not a band as such)!

Mid August weekend

The weekend wasn't too bad - dry at least and sometimes pretty warm and occasionally sunny - but I was hoping we might have had a bit of settled sunny weather by now. It seems the summer is fading fast - let's hope for an Indian one!

Gary brought Luca over on Saturday afternoon and he was in pretty good form - at least before they took him up Scolty!:

Having golfed in the morning, I dipped out of the plan to go up the hill in the afternoon, but Kelly, Jo and Gary tried to take Luca up - unsuccessfully! He apparently had a bit of a meltdown and when he came back, he refused food and then started throwing up!

Kelly and her new hairstyle were hogging the power points in the house:

We decided to have a take away curry from the Coriander for tea - Kelly co-ordinated the order and she and I popped in to the golf club for a beer on the balcony before picking the order up. The sun had gone down by then but that didn't stop Jo wheeling Luca round in the buggy to join us for a swift one:

After golfing at Torphins on Sunday morning, I got home to see Craig for the first time this weekend - he had just returned from his mate's stag night in Aviemore. He was pretty knackered after driving from Cornwall on Thursday, wedding Friday, then driving across the mountains for the stag do on Saturday. He tried manfully to watch a bit of TV:

Jo made another lovely stew and rhubarb crumble for tea - that's another thing Craig doesn't eat - rhubarb! What does the man survive on? Obviously the sea and surf is enough to keep him going. Carole, Luca, Gary, Jo, Ross and I all wolfed the crumble up - just like old times! Now here's the real debate - custard - hot or cold? It has to be hot - poured on top of ice cream - ye cannae whack it!

Kelly's bombshell news about the potential move to Australia was met with dropped jaws. She at least didn't preface it with "I've got some news for you" - she felt this may have been misinterpreted!

Perhaps the planned week in Spain may have to be re-thought?

We settled down to watch an old movie in the evening - Escape from Alcatraz, with Clint Eastwood - it had stood the test of time not too badly - and we all managed to stay awake through it!

Early rise this morning to see Kelly and Craig off - they were up and gone by 6:00 am, but they're back in a few weeks' time for another wedding.

Friday

Had a chance to play 5 a sides again tonight - but declined - didn't want to risk my ankle yet. Planning a lunchtime trip to Bannatyne's - it's going be painful going back there after all this time! I asked Jo if she wanted to come in some time today, but she said she didn't know what she was doing and so declined - probably more coffee planned with Anne!

Kelly and Craig are up this weekend and are at a wedding today, so it'll be tomorrow before we see them. Climbing Scolty is on the agenda for some - but probably not me, if I get a game of golf in the morning. The forecast is pretty dreich again - we haven't been very lucky since we came back.

Other than that, it's just a routine Friday - the Legion is tonight's drinking venue.

I chased up CALA's agents again asking for a copy of their revised plans - they didn't reply to my first message. I'm probably on their black list!

Historic Scotland finally found their records on the Tor-na-Coille hotel - an application was made back in 2004/05 - apparently through Aberdeenshire Council - to have the building listed, but was rejected after inspection on the following grounds:

"Although there is a fine Victorian structure at the core, it has been seriously eroded by
large extensions to both East and North, as well as some large out-of-character dormer
additions and a lift shaft which completely destroy the fine roofline, particularly to the
principal elevation.
Also impeding inclusion in the statutory list is the fact that the garden grounds have been
divided and built on, weakening the integrity of the original setting.
The interior details are fine but limited only to 2 ground floor rooms while the rest of the
rooms have been altered for use as hotel accommodation and are generally very plain."

Bang goes another potential avenue of resistance!

The birthday gift we got for Gary - a digital radio system - has apparently broken down already. Hope he can get it sorted out through the warranty.

Useless fact of the day - there are 7 days in a week - 5 working and 2 weekend. (That one was for you, Gary - you still seem reluctant to go to Spain for a full week!)

Spain

For everyone's benefit, but especially Gary - flights to Spain/Tenerife are usually charters, which means a minimum trip of one week - e.g Flyglobespan's winter schedules to Malaga depart and return on Saturdays, whilst Airtours to Tenerife is Friday to Friday. Surely 5 days off work is not too hard to organise?

Sad week - today was the 4th anniversary of Dr. Francis Clark's death - Michael's and Francis' father.

Wednesday/Thursday

Managed to get a round in at Banchory last night - and it was fairly pleasant - dry and reasonably warm. Hurt my ankle again, however - will have to be careful with it.

Now that I'm back to driving up and down the road to the Broch again, I've taken to listening to my downloaded audiobooks again. I finished off Alice Cooper, Golf Monster - not bad - narrated by Alice himself. I'm now on to "Who's Your Caddy?" - an account by a writer from Sports Illustrated of caddying for big names -he tried to get Tiger to agree to let him caddy for him, but failed. So far, I've listened to his accounts of his experiences with Tom Lehman, John Daly, David Duval and Donald Trump - they're hilarious if you're a golf buff. The narrator is excellent - I couldn't stop laughing as I was driving.

Tonight we were originally planning to go to Bannatyne's (first time for over a month for me!) but Jo's got the hairdresser this afternoon and it wouldn't be a good idea to visit the gym or the pool immediately after that.

Tuesday in the Broch

Got back from Fraserburgh at a reasonable time last night and sat down to a lovely stew, potatoes, broccoli and peas that Jo had made. We then settled down to watch a movie - La Vie en Rose - Edith Piaf's life story - I would say it was about the best biopic I've ever seen - possibly even better than Walk the Line. Catch it if you can - it brought Jo out in a fit of the weepies!

Thinking ahead to next year - it's my 60th in March and Kelly's 30th in May. It was hinted when we were in Grants Pass that we should do something special to commemorate this - possibly hire a villa in Spain, big enough for all of us, for a week some time between our two birthdays. What do you think? The Costa or the Canaries is the easiest for us all to get to - there are usually direct flights from Aberdeen and, of course, London - and these would be the best places relatively near at hand to get some fairly guaranteed sunshine. Comments, please!

It's dry in Aberdeen this morning (Wednesday) and we're due to play golf tonight - fingers crossed! Talking about golf, Jo needs to get up to the driving range soon. She's now a fully paid up member of the golf club again, with time on her hands. If the weather had been a bit better, I'd have taken her out for a few holes some evening, but we haven't really had the chance yet. Perhaps Irene Page will give her a call some time and encourage her to get out there?

My Mum

It was 6 years ago today that my Mum died. I still remember the drive down to Glasgow. Barry had phoned in the morning and said we should come down as Mum was going downhill. I made arrangements at work and Jo and I packed and eventually set off about lunchtime. Barry phoned me as we were half way between Dundee and Perth - we were too late. The rest of the journey was a bit of blur. Wish we had set off sooner.

Monday

This posting is my 150th this year - I started this blog back in March, 2007 and have published a total of 261 so far (now 262) - plus another 45 on my golf blog and 12 on the football one! Let there be no doubt about who's winning the blog contest! Lucy has posted 55 so far, and Kelly and Craig exactly 100. Gary, who had the cheek to complain recently about others not posting regularly, has a mere 33 to his name - come on, you can do better!

Haven't set Jo's blog up yet - she's paranoid about doing it now, having conducted lengthy conversations with Mr Conspiracy Theory himself, Ross!

Anyway, yesterday was the start of my first full week back after vacation - it'll probably be a long one! I left the office early to go to the meeting with Jamie Burnett to find out the latest on the planned Hill of Banchory sports centre. It's still some away yet and the exact timing will be influenced by how soon Tesco get planning permission and how quickly Bandswim get the funding in place for the 25 metre pool - remember how the whole town collected for this over a decade ago? Anyway, I'll keep working away in the hope that squash courts will return to Banchory - long after I've given up by the look of it, but hopefully a new generation will get a chance to play a sport that I've had a lot of fun from - and made a lot of friends.

After the meeting, Keith, Richard and I went up to Jamie's court at Crathes - new toilet fitted, but no showers yet! - and played racquetball for the first time for a couple of months. It was great fun and reminded me of what I would be missing if I had simply taken my cardiologist's first advice, rather than "persuading" him that it would be OK to carry on playing with my fellow seniors at our leisurely pace.

As usual, we showered at the golf club and, as I was wearing my new Kaleidoscope (http://www.kaleidoscopepizza.com/) t-shirt, I thought there might be a photo opportunity - they have a collection of photos in their pizza pub in Medford of customers wearing their t-shirts in far-off places - but nowhere as far as Banchory. However, immediately after squash, this was not my finest moment and I think I'll leave it until another time before I send them a photo!: